Odds & Ins.

Two Qbs Equal One Big Mistake

September 03, 1999|By Steve Rosenbloom.

Good morning, Dick Jauron.

Are you aware these games will count?

- Some conspirators are looking at this quarterback mess of forcing rookie Cade McNown into Shane Matthews' game as a way of gauging what the personnel department wants with its No. 1 draft pick's success and what the coaching staff that wasn't around for the draft wants with its own success.

- If this cockamamie idea gives the Bears the "best opportunity to win the game" the way Jauron said, then just how awful is this team? Geez, some former defensive coordinators will go to any length to deflect attention from an utter lack of pass rush.

- Maybe Jauron made this decision based on something he wouldn't want to face as a defensive coordinator. But based on Jauron's 23rd-ranked defense in Jacksonville last year, there are a lot of things he wouldn't want to face.

- Bears players think this deal is just as dopey as you do.

- Let's recap how the Bears' "quarterback of the future" has a limited near-future precisely because of the Bears: The Bears draft McNown with their first pick; the Bears crow about McNown's mini-camp progress; the Bears cut Erik Kramer just days before camp begins, saying they hope Matthews can be an adequate backup for McNown; the Bears refuse to give McNown the big-money contract with voidable years; the Bears thus force McNown to miss 11 days of training camp before giving him almost exactly the contract he asked for in the first place.

And now the Bears are trying desperately to stave off McNown's certain regression, so somebody got the harebrained idea to go with something that never has been successful in the NFL.

You know, like Matthews.

- Somehow, you have to figure this is all Jim Riggleman's fault.

- Here's something for Jauron's talk about the Bears being champions this season: Of the 108 playoff teams in the 1990s, only 15 have been led by a new quarterback and none reached the Super Bowl. Presumably, that goes double for a team led by two new quarterbacks. Buh-bye.

- WSCR-AM types are grumbling about limited access to Jauron as an extended interview guest because WMAQ-AM won't loosen its rights, even though WMAQ and The Score are both CBS stations.

"We can't have Jauron," one Score conspirator said, "but when they need music for their sports shows, they want to raid the WXRT (WSCR sister station) library."

- The Blackhawks are raining season-ticket brochures on the Chicago area. The propaganda tells you all the great things you get. What it doesn't tell you is that you also have to buy a ticket to each of the four exhibition games--at $75 a pop for the good seats.

- Here's what umpires union chief Richie Phillips talked his guys into resigning from: salaries ranging from $75,000 to $225,000, a $20,000 bonus for everyone, up to $30,000 for postseason work, first-class travel, $240 per diem and 31 days off during a season that lasts only seven months.

Oh, and they never could lose their job. Ever. No matter how lousy they are. Unless, of course, they were dumb enough to submit their resignations.

- The end: A former Brewers teammate, on much-injured A's All-Star John Jaha: "He was so broken down, he'd get hurt doing rehab."